Page 88 of Dark Awakening: New World

Ell-rom hesitated, the full weight of the dream pressing down on him. He needed time to think about that dream to examine whether it could have been true. He wasn't ready to share the horrifying revelation about his supposed powers, but he could focus on the less disturbing aspects.

"I saw my sister's face. We were young, maybe twelve or so. And the head priestess was there. We were in her office, and she was reprimanding us for something. We all had our veils off, and I remember thinking that Morelle and I could pass for gods. The priestess looked very Kra-ell, and she had that dark triangle on her tongue that indicated she was of royal descent. Morelle and I have rounded pink tongues."

"What did Morelle look like?" Jasmine asked.

Ell-rom closed his eyes, picturing his sister's young face. "She was beautiful," he said, a small smile tugging at his lips. "Delicate features, big blue eyes very much like mine. She looked fierce, but she was a little scared of the priestess. I was scared of her, too. She was intimidating."

If the dream was true, the head priestess was also heartless and manipulative. How could she have sacrificed the life of the guard just to discover what Ell-rom and Morelle could do?

Could his sister kill with a mere thought, too?

Mother above, it was terrifying. He should never think negatively about anyone.

No, it just wasn't true. No one could do that. It had just been a nightmare.

Jasmine cupped his cheek. "You look shaken by the dream. What did you and your sister do that got you in trouble with the head priestess?"

Ell-rom felt a pang of guilt as he forced a smile and prepared to lie. "The dream ended before I found out."

Jasmine chuckled. "You were probably too scared to find out and woke yourself up. I sometimes do that when I have bad dreams. I wake up with a headache, but it's worth it to end the nightmare."

Ell-rom wished that his dream was just that.

A nightmare.

59

JASMINE

Ell-rom seemed pensive while they were getting ready for the day, his brow furrowed as if he was wrestling with some internal conflict. Her prince certainly didn't have a poker face, and when he tried to lie or hide something, it was written all over it.

There had been more to that dream than he had admitted to, but she didn't want to pressure him into talking about it if he wasn't ready.

"You said you've had nightmares," he suddenly said. "What were they about?"

The question caught her off guard, and she hesitated for a moment, memories of countless restless nights flashing through her mind. "They're mostly about my mother." Jasmine sat on one of the chairs flanking the bedside table that they had turned into their dining table. "She died when I was a little girl, and I don't know exactly what happened to her. I can barely remember her, and my father refuses to talk about her. He claims that the less I know, the better it is for me. So, I keep dreaming about her dying in hundreds of different ways, and sometimes it is me who is dying instead of her. I haven't had them lately, but I know they'll come back. They always do."

Ell-rom sat on the other chair and leaned forward to take her hand. "I feel so guilty for not asking you about your family before. I was projecting my situation onto you, so if I had no past because I couldn't remember it, you didn't have a past either. It was like our lives started in this room. I'm so sorry for being so self-absorbed."

"Don't apologize." She gave his hand a light squeeze. "It's not like I encouraged a conversation about my dysfunctional family. It's not something that I like to talk about."

"Good or bad, your family is still a part of you, and it shaped who you are as a person, even if their contribution was showing you how not to be like them."

She laughed. "You are very astute for a newborn."

Thankfully, he got the reference and smiled. "I was born with preexisting programming."

"That's not a joke. I think people are born with genetic memory. Like fear of snakes. Even those who have never seen a snake are afraid of them."

"You are diverting the conversation away from your family. Tell me about them."

"There's not much to tell," she said with a shrug. "I don't remember much about my mother, and after she died, my father married a woman with two sons who hated me and made my life miserable."

"Why?"

"They'd gotten into their stupid little heads that my father stole their mother from their dad, and they resented us both for it. They should have stayed with their father if they loved him so much."

"Did they?" he asked quietly. "Love their father?"

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